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Why Rome Can Only Appreciate, Rather than Prove the Immaculate Conception Should we believe something because we think it is true, or should we think something is true because we first believe?  For example, if you believe that extra-terrestrials have visited the earth, then you are likely to believe in UFO sightings and  alien abduction stories, and conspiracy theories about government coverups as confirmation of what you already believe.  This doesn’t mean that you believe that every UFO sighting or abduction story is real.  Nor does this mean that you buy into every conspiracy theory out there.  But if you...

Today is the feast of the Annunciation. On this great day, the eternal Word of God stooped down from heaven, was made flesh, and came to dwell among us. In His great goodness, in the wise folly of His boundless love for us, God gave Himself to us, humbling Himself and taking the form of a slave so that we who had been conquered by sin and evil might in Him be made their conquerors. Yet today is not called the feast of the Incarnation, but rather the feast of the Annunciation. The great mystery of the incarnation was made...

It has been argued that “Mary is the creature closest to God. Moreover, while Christ is the mediator of all grace between God and creation, Mary is the mediator of all grace between Christ and humanity. Consequently, Mary is a powerful intercessor for all who turn to her” (see Zoltan, 1994, emp. added). The Bible clearly teaches that Mary is not Deity and should not be worshipped as such (see Pinedo, 2009). If she is not Deity, is she the closest human being to Deity? Does she play an active role in heaven, interceding for individual Christians? Does she make...

Praying The Rosary Is Not Biblical, And Is A Form Of Idolatry Just last Sunday, a local newspaper paper released an article teaching that the praying of the Holy Rosary is Bible-based. In the first two paragraphs, the writer admittedly says that there is no passage in the Bible teaching nor mentioned about the praying of Rosary. However, in the following paragraphs, the writer justified the praying of the Rosary basing it on the repetition of historical events of some Bible characters (like Gideon as he mentioned) about Israel’s history. I don’t know if the writer of this article did...

It is often claimed the Mary was heralded by the Patristics as a woman full of grace, perhaps sinless, and deserving our veneration above other departed saints as the Mother of the Church. This is not the case. While I do freely admit that the word Patristic can be used to cover a variety of ages, I prefer to use it to the pre-nicaean leaders of the church. Let us start with them, and we can move on from there. In the Apostolic Fathers, as the first century leaders are often called, one sees little to no mention of...

Idolatry by J. C. Ryle (1816-1900)   This updated and revised manuscript is copyrighted Ó1998 by Tony Capoccia.  All rights reserved.   "Flee from idolatry" (1 Corinthians 10:14)   Our text for today may seem at first to be hardly needed in our country.  In an age of education and intelligence, we might almost fancy it is waste of time to tell us to "flee from idolatry."   I am bold to say that this is a great mistake.  I believe that we have come to a time when the subject of idolatry demands a thorough and searching investigation. ...

Author and apologist Tim Staples joins Fr. Mitch to talk about Marian devotion and defends Mary as Mother of God, the immaculate conception, her perpetual virginity and assumption into heaven.

A 1,500-year-old book that contains a previously unknown gospel has been deciphered. The ancient manuscript may have been used to provide guidance or encouragement to people seeking help for their problems, according to a researcher who has studied the text. Written in Coptic, an Egyptian language, the opening reads (in translation): "The Gospel of the lots of Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, she to whom Gabriel the Archangel brought the good news. He who will go forward with his whole heart will obtain what he seeks. Only do not be of two minds

In my new book, Behold Your Mother - A Biblical and Historical Defense of the Marian Doctrines, I give eight reasons for belief in the Immaculate Conception: 1. Mary is revealed to be "full of grace" in Luke 1:28. 2. Mary is revealed to be the fulfillment of the prophetic "Daughter of Zion" of Zech. 2:10; Zeph. 3:14-16; Isaiah 12:1-6, etc. 3. Mary is revealed to be "the beginning of the new creation" in fufillment of the prophecy of Jer. 31:22. 4. Mary is revealed to possess a "blessed state" parallel with Christ's in Luke 1:42. 5. Mary is not...

Roman CatholicismLoraine Boettner ©1962Part 7 MARY. 1. Mary’s Place in Scripture. 2. ‘Mother of God.’ 3. Historical Development. 4. Contrast between Roman and Protestant Teaching. 5. Mary as an Object of Worship. 6. Mary Usurps the Place of Christ. 7. Mary Represented as more Sympathetic than Jesus. 8. One Mediator. 9. Adoration or Idolatry? 10. Latria—Dulia—Hyperdulia. 11. Jesus’ Attitude towards Mary. 12. The Protestant Attitude towards Mary. 13. Were There Other Children in the Family of Joseph and Mary? 14. The Immaculate Conception. 15. The Assumption of Mary. 16. Rome’s Real Purpose in the Exaltation of Mary.1. MARY’S PLACE...

Here are artistic representations of two goddesses who are considered the Queen of Heaven and Goddesses.  The Buddhist/Taoist Kuan Yin (or Guan Yin) (觀音) And The Catholic depiction of Mary Note the similarities in representation.  This relates to a thread last week on the leftover, or accretional pagan beliefs or rituals that are still present in the Catholic church.  The Goddess of Mercy is a universal idol/icon in pagan belief systems. 

Fr. Mitch Pacwa holds this fascinating interview on his weekly "EWTN Live" show, with his special guest, former strident "Catholic-Basher" and Pentecostal ("Assembly of God") minister, "Tim Staples": EWTN LIVE - 2015.1.21 - Tim Staples.

Pope Francis has weighed into the debate over freedom of expression in the wake of the religious attacks in Paris, saying that anyone who insults a religion can expect a "punch in the nose". ... He said "If my good friend Dr Gasparri says a curse word against my mother [Mary?], he can expect a punch in the nose." Throwing a pretend punch, the Pope said: "It's normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others." ...

CHAPTER VIIITHE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, MOTHER OF GOD IN THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST AND THE CHURCH I. Introduction 52. Wishing in His supreme goodness and wisdom to effect the redemption of the world, "when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman...that we might receive the adoption of sons".(283) "He for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary."(1*) This divine mystery of salvation is revealed to us and continued in the Church, which the Lord established as His body. Joined...

The Blessed Virgin Mary was thoroughly Jewish. Different cultures and ethnicities have often portrayed her, Jesus, and others from the Bible as being from their group. Since Christianity for many centuries was based largely in Europe, these important characters of salvation history have often been depicted as white Europeans. Which is fine! But other cultures have also depicted them according to their own appearances. Here are 13 beautiful non-white European depictions of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

When masked gunmen with assault rifles killed at least 12 people Wednesday in Paris in the offices of satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, all eyes were on al Qaeda, which had added the magazine's editor, Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier, to its hit list in 2009 for covers depicting the Prophet Muhammad. But the magazine, launched in 1969, has been an equal-opportunity offender, skewering celebrities, the French police, and Catholic and Jewish as well as Muslim figures. "Above all," Charbonnier, the editor since 2009, told Reuters in 2012, "it is a secular and atheist newspaper." In other words, the publication's enemies could...

It’s bad enough when a Muslim cleric states that one must not say “Merry Christmas” and that doing so is worse than “killing someone,” as an Islamic “scholar” I recently cited did. But then we have the people born into the Christian tradition who join the anti-yuletide chorus, albeit with a tad more subtlety (usually).  This is generally typified by those objecting to store employees wishing others “Merry Christmas” or to having Nativity displays on public property, but now we have a new twisted twist:Some liberals are saying that the Virgin Mary was raped.  At issue here is a...

Valerie Tarico wrote an article at Alternet, republished at Salon, that should get her a lot of invites to ironically themed liberal Christmas parties.  The title: "Why rape is so intrinsic to religion." Tarico lays out a series of myths from pagan traditions, mostly Greek and Roman, in which women are abducted, violated, and coerced.  We have Danae, Europa, Rea Silvia...and, what do you know, the Virgin Mary. Notably, Tarico avoids using the same dire language for the Blessed Mother that she uses for the pagan myths: "[I]n the Gospel of Luke, the Virgin Mary gets pregnant when the...

Ah, Christmas — the season for joy, tolerance, and goodwill amongst all. Usually in these days, media outlets queue up the glurge — the sappy stories, the tearjerker videos, and the essays about finding meaning in a season defined by religion and its observance. Everyone likes to tap into the happy memories and high ideals of the Christmas season.Well, almost everyone. For some reason, Salon chose this week to offer two dyspeptic and nonsensical takes on religion, the most outrageous of which argues that one has to support rape in order to be Christian. God raped the Virgin Mary, so...

Archbishop Sheen preaches about the Blessed Virgin Mary.